The Slim Shady LP turns 15

Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of Eminem’s introduction to the world with his major label debut, The Slim Shady LP. Since 1999, the album earned him a Grammy, was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has been included in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Eminem became the first rapper to reach number 1 on MTV’s Total Request Live for the album’s first single, My Name Is, the song that made him a household name.

The no holds barred rapper changed the hip hop genre forever with his explicit lyrics about everything under the sun from celebrity parodies to drug use to rape and murder. He attained thousands of fans at the end of 90’s and early 2000’s and managed to piss a lot of people off in the process. And still does. Over the last 15 years, his lyrics have sparked several debates as recently as 2013, when he continued to spew homophobic slurs on his sequel to the Marshall Mathers LP.

An MTV News article about the anniversary said that his “nothing-to-loose attitude on the Slim Shady LP is a kind of magic that could never really be duplicated in 2014, or beyond.” In a day and age where celebrities have to publically apologize for every minuscule lapse of judgment they make, it would seem like it would be a hard for an in your face rapper to manage to stay relevant. However, Eminem, who was crowned the “King of Hip-Hop” by Rolling Stone in 2011, is never going away and he is never going to apologize.

“I rap to get a reaction, “Shady told MTV News in November. “A bad reaction is better than no reaction. If my music sparks debates and conversations or whatever — be it right, be it wrong or whatever — I would rather have it get a reaction — a bad reaction — than no reaction. ‘Cause no reaction sucks.”